WENDELL Corinth Holders boys soccer team thrives on starting matches fast. The Pirates did just that Tuesday night, scoring twice in the first 13 minutes of play.

Finishing strong doesn’t hurt either. The Pirates did that, too, scoring two more goals in the final 14 minutes of play in a 4-1 third round 2A soccer playoffs win over Pittsboro Northwood.

“That’s the way we always come out, it’s our style,” said forward Brock Waynik, who assisted on the first goal of the match, then scored the second. “We want to create as much pressure as we possibly can on our opponent. It’s all about building good plays with good passes, good angles and going hard.”

Seven minutes in, Waynik pushed a ball through to Nick Burton who held off a Northwood defender and drilled a shot to the far post for a 1-0 lead.

Six minutes later, Waynik made a run of his own up the left flank and sent his shot by a diving Chase Golden for a 2-0 advantage.

The Pirates (19-3-1) will host the winner of Thursday’s game between 16-1 Kill Devil Hills First Flight and Carrboro (15-6-3) in an eastern regional semifinal match on Saturday. Northwood finishes the season 13-8-2.

The Chargers cut the lead to 2-1 with 2:40 to go in the first half when Nathan Svendsen lofted a high 25-yard free kick to the Corinth Holders goal. Pirates sophomore keeper Chason Karst admitted he lost the ball in the stadium lights long enough to misjudge it.

It was the first goal the Pirates have given up in the playoffs.

The Chargers (13-8-2) nearly equalized 10 minutes into the second half when a ball in the air in front of the goal got to the head of Clark Streets.

Streets headed the ball on goal, but Karst dove hard to his left to tip it just wide of the goal.

“I saw that our guys couldn’t get it cleared,” Karst said of the shot. “I was going to come out on it but I wasn’t sure that I could get there, so I backpedaled and was able to tip it away when they got a head on it.”

Corinth Holders, a third-year school making its first third round playoff appearance, kept working for the key goal the Pirates had discussed at halftime, even though it didn’t come for the first 26 minutes of the second half.

“We knew we had to get the first goal after halftime,” Waynik said. “It took us some time, but our midfield and defense didn’t give them any real good chances to get even.”

The Pirates’ solid passing finally led to that next goal. An eight-pass string ended with Burton dropping the ball from the left side onto a running Waynik in the middle of the penalty area. Burton’s shot banged off of the far post and into the net for a 3-1 lead.

“It was 27 minutes into the second half before we scored, but we controlled the flow,” said Corinth Holders coach Brent Walston. “They like to try to control the play with their center mid (Pedro Ramos) but we didn’t let them do that for the most part. Aaron Lopez and Melecio Rubio-Villagran did a great job controlling the middle of the field for us.”

Five minutes later, Grant Austin blasted a shot that Golden knocked away from the goal but a rushing Lopez was there drive the loose ball home for the final margin.

Nighthawks oust Tigers in 3A

GREENSBORO Chapel Hill scored first, outshot Northern Guilford 25-12 and even had a 5-4 edge in corner kicks, but the Nighthawks came back to win 3-1 in double-overtime and ousted the Tigers from the NCHSAA 3A playoffs’ third round Wednesday.

Chapel Hill (20-6-1) led 1-0 in the first half on a goal by Salomon Ariza, assisted by Luke Ciocca.

The Nighthawks rallied to tie it at 1-1 in the second half to send the game into 20 minutes of overtime. Northern Guilford (16-7-2), the Mid-State Conference champion scored in the first 10-minute period of extra time and, as CHHS pressed forward in attempts to find the equalizer, struck twice more in the second overtime period.